TechMedia

The main reasons to transcode are to convert to a codec for editing purposes, and if you need to deliver in a specific codec iPhone, WMV, etc).

For editing, capture from tape creates few problems. But the rise of video-to-disc systems means most camera manufacturers record in codecs that that are highly compressed and not designed for editing.

Which means that a lot of times you could end up with video that doesn’t play so well in your Final Cut Pro and Avid editing systems.

So after coming across the article To Transcode and Not to Transcode? I started thinking that using Premier sounds pretty sweet.

For those of us not using Premier I recommend using Streamclip, which has a feature I find very handy – File>Show Stream Info (cmd, i) will give you all kinds of useful information for import, such as frame size, and kbps.

What is your workflow, do you transcode before editing? Will Premier capture a bigger market share because it’s so handy to edit using native file formats?

With so much upheaval in the news industry, it can be tough staying on top of new technologies. One of the biggest incentives for me to be on Twitter is to follow people and businesses that provide useful links for e-learning, and I have discovered many useful resources through Twitter.

So without further ado, here are a few of my favourite journalism sites on the web today.

Journalism coders

Hacks and Hackers is a digital community of people who seek to inspire each other, share information (and code) and collaborate to invent the future of media and journalism.

Sadly the meetups for this group are far away from where I live, but I follow its founders Burt Herman, Rich Gordon, and Aron Pilhofer on Twitter and find its Q&A site helpful. Have a question about media and technology, post it here and knowledgeable journalist/coders will jump in to help you out.

News University

Poynter’s newsu.org is a wonderful interactive journalism training site, and many of its courses are either free or cheap. (And we all know how much journalists love free stuff.)

I have taken some fantastic free courses such as Multimedia Reporting: Covering Breaking News, Video Storytelling for the Web and Online Project Development. I advise you to go and create an account, and to follow newsuniversity on Twitter.

The Nieman Journalism Lab

The Nieman Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age.

The J-lab’s Twitter stream is a great source of news about, well, news.

Recent stories include How The Guardian is pioneering data journalism with free tools, Calmness, curation, cat porn, and The NYT’s depressing list of most looked-up words

Lastly, a not-totally-journalistic site

I am going to throw in Read Write Web. I didn’t include it in the top 3 as it as more a general technology blog, but it has plenty of stories of interest to journalists and is well worth a follow on Twitter.

That’s my very unscientific list – what are your favourite journalism sites?

I just watched a wonderful 2 minute video on pocket-size video journalism in which BBC multimedia trainer Ramaa Sharma provides tips on how best to use a small camera (such as a Flip, Kodak or iPhone).

A few of her key points are:

• Keep the camera still. Try to use a tripod – or natural support – whenever possible
• Hold each shot for at least 10 seconds
• Shoot from different distances – wide to establish, medium gives more detail, and a close up
• Avoid zooms and pans
• Try to get in close and find quiet spot for best sound
• Avoid backlighting where possible

And special for those headed to music festivals this summer (Folk on the Rocks and Vancouver Folk Fest are next weekend!), check out the embed below to see how to shoot a video of a live music performance.

The 55-inch Samsung Edge costs $3,688.88. To play movies you'll need a Blu-ray player. Regular HD doesn't have capacity for 3D information.

When I spotted a 3D Samsung TV in the flyer for Audiotronic I had to go check it out for myself. I found online 3D at NFB to be difficult to watch and was skeptical. So my field trip to Roy’s was a pleasant surpise – watching this TV mimicks the cimema experience perfectly.

I was shocked at the $449 cost for each extra pair of 3D glasses (TV comes with two). But they are awesome. These active shutter glasses are so magical they can simulate 3D in 2D movies and games, a feature will be a boon for video-gamers.

But what about 3D content, what’s out there now?

Although this is a growing field, it is limited at this point. Masters Golf was broadcast in 3D (in Yellowknife through Bell ExpressVu), the World Cup will be 3D and there are rumours the Stanley Cup will be 3D.

As well, Hollywood has been churning out plenty of 3D movies of late, which will all find their way to Blu-ray. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Aliens Vs. Monsters appear to be the first movies available in 3D (at least in Yellowknife).

Avatar has only been released in 2D to date (with 3D slated for Christmas), but it can be watched with the 3D render glasses. Honestly, even without the 3D glasses, the 2D Avatar looked sort of 3D to me.

It will be interesting to see how fast the new technology is adopted once the prices begin to drop. Not everybody is a fan of 3D. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert’s vociferous opposition to 3D has been the source of stories on Mashable and Newsweek (lots of great points Roger!).

What do you think of 3D, will you be purchasing any 3D devices in 2010?

Is Creative Suite 5 worth the $899 US (Master Collection) for upgrade?

I think it just may be.

Its top 3 sweet features for me were:

1. Built in CMS support to make themes and templates in WordPress, Drupal, Joolma.
2. Take the pain out of rotoscoping with rotobrush in After Effects.
   
3. And everyone’s been talking about Photoshop’s Content Aware Filter of course.

What new CS5 features do you think you’ll use the most?

Check out Adobe’s CS5 launch video for more info, or just head over to Lynda.com, it was adding CS5 tutorials even before today’s launch.

Aren’t you getting sick of toting about that bag full of gadgets? Can’t decide whether you want to shoot still or movie? Well with today’s technology, you don’t have to carry heavy equipment to get fantastic results.

The evidence is compelling – check out this 1080p video shot at 6400 ASA (some scenes were shot at 3200 ASA) with a Canon 1D MKIV. No flash, no outside lighting – only available light. Prepare to be amazed by the quality (of the resolution, the actual plot doesn’t make much sense).

All this quality comes at a price – a $5,000+ price, but as the 1D MKIV is inevitably replaced by the next-best-thing, its cost will drop.

Both the Canon and Nikon’s D3S can shoot at ISO speeds of up to ISO 102,400 – less lighting = lighter camera bag.

D3S’s built-in microphone for monaural sound, or use an optional external microphone for stereo recording.

As well, the D3S allows videographers to attach an external microphone, which is important for getting good sound (viewers are more likely to forgive poor picture quality than poor sound quality).

These cameras are fantastic for on the move travel light photographer-videographers – a growing category in this jack-of-all-trades multi-media world.

Since the release of box-office (and Oscar?) king Avatar, it seems a flood-gate of 3D products are here – or almost here.

3D for the masses!

Panasonic recently announced that it will ship its 3D camcorder AG-3DA1, this fall. If you have a spare $21,000, let me know how that goes (accessories not included).

At the other end of the scale we have the $400 (“not James Cameron approved”) pistol-grip pocket cam, the DXG camera.

Another interesting development in 3D was the Sky TV’s recent screening of the world’s first live major sporting event in 3D.

And YouTube has been making forays into the 3D format since late last year.

I am not ready to run out and buy a 3D camera yet, so instead I sent off for the best 3D deal around – 2 free 3D glasses from the National Film Board online store.

The glasses will take a while to arrive, as NFB is awaiting a new stock (due to popularity). But once they do arrive, I’ll be able to access NFB’s online 3D film collection.

The improvements in both 3D and augmented reality technologies means we can expect to have even deeper immersive information and entertainment experiences in the coming year.

Bring it on!

I have always enjoyed 3-D movies, so I read the latest Wired article, James Cameron’s New 3-D Epic Could Change Film Forever with great interest.

Cameron wanted to create the perfect 3D camera for Avatar.

Working with Sony, he developed a “lightweight, dual-lens, hi-def camera capable of shooting precisely calibrated 3-D images that won’t give viewers a headache,” according to the December issue of Wired.

Was it worth the 10 years and $250 million-$500 million (reports vary on the cost) it cost to make?”

I can’t say as I haven’t seen it yet.

But I can pass along this comment made recently by a co-worker, who flew from Yellowknife to Edmonton for the Imax 3-D opening: “Avatar: like one reviewer put it: ‘the 3D is so good it’s like your eyeballs are having sex.’”

And there is more good news on the horizon for 3-D movie lovers – the Globe and Mail ran a story today, 3-D’s next frontier: your living room that stated, “The televisions will be in Canadian stores within six months but will consumers put on their glasses and watch?”

Within six months, experts say, 3-D televisions will be in Canadian electronics stores, selling from $3,000 to $8,000. Sony expects that by 2012, 30 to 50 per cent of its TV sales will be 3-D. And in Britain, Sky Network is months away from launching the first 3-D channel.

Will you be lining up for the latest in video technology? As for myself, I look forward to the coming of interactive hologram stories, as depicted in Star Trek.

Engage!

This Yellowknife municipal election website I have been working on for the past couple of weeks required shooting/processing and uploading 19, 5-minute videos. Since Flash video is installed in all modern browsers and accessible to the largest audience (99 per cent), it is the way to go for online video.

Making the videos is easy in the Flash interface because you are guided through the process. Go to the menu: File>Import>Import Video. The first question is: where is your flv file located. If you want to test video locally, you can browse to the video on your desktop. But if you do this, you will need to go into the Component Inspector later before you publish your Flash movie, and change the file path to where the flv is on the server once you have uploaded your flv video.

Component inspector - change the file path to server here if you used local file.

So the best way is to avoid using local files and instead have your flv file already uploaded so you can point to the path.

Best to have FLV file online and select its path on import so you don't have to readjust later in Component Inspector.

You can still test locally by pressing Cmd, Return (Control>Test Movie), but once you publish you won’t be able to test the swf/html files created until they are uploaded.

This is the only tricky step. The rest is just picking options for your Flash skin: colour, under or over video, which controls do you want. Then test and publish (checking Publish Settings to make sure the file size will be OK for your audience.

Once you hit “Publish,” three files will be created: swf, skin swf, and the html code you will need to add to your page to run the Flash. Integrate the html into your page, and upload all three file (because the flv should already be up!)

That’s all there is to it!

I love how BooneOakley.com used YouTube videos – linked together through annotations – as its website.

It is fun, simple and perfectly gets the message across. The site uses a URL redirect into YouTube and all navigation is done within YouTube. Even the ‘contact’ option uses YouTube mail.

YouTube gives several interactive options.

(Thanks Adobe Edge and its Edge of Flash article for tipping me off to this site.)